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By Charlotte Hsu

A University at Buffalo architect's new project -- a twisted
tower designed to house bats at Griffis Sculpture Park -- is
raising awareness about the animals and a fatal disease threatening
their population in the Northeast.

Joyce Hwang's "Bat Tower" stands about 12 feet tall, comprising
five triangular segments stacked on top of one another and joined
by steel bolts. The walls of each segment consist of finished
plywood panels arranged in a ribbed, accordion-like pattern, with a
narrow space separating each piece of wood from the next. A plywood
covering stained with a dark, rust color wraps around the top of
the structure. Screws and steel cables hold the pillar together,
bracing it to withstand wind or other lateral forces.

The conspicuous design, unusual for a bat house, serves a
purpose: Hwang says she hopes "Bat Tower" draws attention to bats
and white-nose syndrome, a deadly affliction that has reportedly
killed more than 1 million bats in recent years, striking the
mammals as they hibernate.

UB architecture students fabricated and assembled many of the
tower's parts in the School of Architecture and Planning Materials
and Methods Shop.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the disease was
first documented in 2006, when a caver exploring terrain west of
Albany photographed hibernating bats with a strange, white
substance on their muzzles -- a telltale sign of infection. Since
then, biologists and adventurers have found sick, dead and dying
bats in and around caves and mines as far south as Tennessee and as
far west as Oklahoma. More than 90 percent of bats in some
hibernacula have died.

"White-nose syndrome is a major ecological crisis," says Hwang,
an assistant professor in UB's School of Architecture and Planning.
"Bats are animals that people practically consider to be pests, so
there is a lack of desire to see them in the environment around us.
But bats are a critical part of the ecosystem, and now they are
facing this threat."

"Since I was a graduate student, I have taken an interest in the
constructive relationships between humans and animals, and how we
can shape our environment in a beneficial way," Hwang says. "Bat
Tower draws attention to bats by challenging the notion of a bat
house being something nondescript that fades into the
background."

"Bat Tower" featured prominently in "Pest Architecture," a talk
Hwang delivered this June at "Animals and Animality Across the
Humanities and Social Sciences," a conference at Queen's University
in Ontario. The New York State Council on the Arts funded the
project with a $10,000 grant, and the Van Alen Institute, a
nonprofit architectural organization, acted as fiscal sponsor.

Hwang is working with Griffis Sculpture Park to plan an early
October opening reception. Griffis curator Sarah Fonzi says "Bat
Tower" embodies the marriage of art and nature that defines the
outdoor museum and nature preserve in Cattaraugus County: "We are
thrilled," Fonzi says, "to have a sculpture that is both exciting
and brings awareness to our visitors."

Caves, with their long, seemingly endless hollows, were the
inspiration for "Bat Tower," which Hwang compares to a vertical
cave. The structure's many tight spaces are ideal for bats, she
says.

She and collaborators, including UB students, fabricated and
assembled many of the tower's 400-plus plywood parts in the School
of Architecture and Planning Materials and Methods Shop before
installing the shelter at Griffis in June. At the base, Hwang and
students planted chives, oregano and other herbs in an effort to
attract the insects the flying mammals love to eat.

"Bat Tower," a permanent installation, sits adjacent to a pond,
a site Hwang selected with the late Simon Griffis based on
recommendations by UB biologist Katharina Dittmar de la Cruz. The
location appears to be ideal: During a trip to Griffis in August,
Hwang says, one of her student assistants reported seeing bats
emerging from the tower at dusk.

Though Hwang does not have concrete plans for building more bat
houses, she hopes "Bat Tower" will be the first in a series. She
and collaborators will continue visiting Griffis periodically to
see how the shelter fares over time and through different
seasons.

The research will help Hwang improve upon design and
construction. She is working on proposals for two additional
structures designed to encourage bat habitation: "Pest Wall," a new
type of wall construction that would house bats and other "pests,"
and "Pest Pavilion," a freestanding building whose roof would make
an ideal home for bats.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public
university, a flagship institution in the State University of New
York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's
more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through
more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree
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the Association of American Universities.